Former nurse accused of killing 100 patients appears in court
● Trial begins with one-minute silence for victims aged between 34 and 96
A former nurse accused of killing 100 patients at two hospitals in Germany over a decade ago told a court as his trial opened yesterday that the charges against him are largely accurate.
Niels Högel, 41, is already serving a life sentence for the murder of six people in his care.
His trial in the northwestern city of Oldenburg began with a minute’s silence for the patients.
Court proceedings had to be held in a nearby festival hall instead of in Oldenburg’s regional court to accommodate the 126 plaintiffs in the case and due to the high level of public interest.
Asked by presiding judge Sebastian Buehrmann whether the charges against him are largely true, Högel replied “yes,” news agency dpa reported.
There are no formal pleas in the German legal system.
The murder charges stem from Högel’s time at a hospital in Oldenburg between 1999 and 2002 and at another hospital in nearby Delmenhorst from 2003 to 2005.
The alleged victims were aged between 34 and 96.
Högel was convicted in 2015 of two murders and two attempted murders. He said then that he intentionally brought about cardiac crises in some 90 patients in Delmenhorst because he enjoyed the feeling of being able to resuscitate them.
Högel said he was “honestly sorry” and hoped families would find peace.
He said the decisions to carry out his crimes had been “relatively spontaneous”.
He later told investigators that he also killed patients in Oldenburg.
Authorities subsequently investigated hundreds of deaths, exhuming bodies of former patients.
Records at the Oldenburg hospital showed rates of
deaths and resuscitations had more than doubled when Högel was on shift, German media reported.
The Oldenburg state court is conducting the trial at a courtroom set up in a conference centre, a venue chosen to accommodate a large number of co-plaintiffs and public interest in the proceedings.
Judge Buehrmann opened the proceedings by asking everyone present to stand for a minute’s silence for the deceased patients.
“All of their relatives deserve that their memory be honoured,” independently of whether or not Högel had anything to do with their deaths, Judge Buehrmann said.
“We will make every effort to seek the truth.” He promised Högel a fair trial.
Högel told the court that he had a “protected” childhood, free of violence.
He said his grandmother and his father, who were both nurses, had been his role models for going into the profession.
An additional conviction could affect Högel’s possibility of parole, but there are no consecutive sentences in Germany.
In general, people serving life sentences are considered for parole after 15 years.
“We have fought for four years for this trial and expect Högel to be convicted of another 100 killings,” said Christian Marbach, a representative of the patients’ relatives.
“The aim is for Högel to stay in custody as long as possible,” he added.
Relatives of his alleged victims were expected to pack the court but journalists in the room noted many empty seats in reserved rows.
The trial is scheduled to last until May.
Police have said that, if local health officials hadn’t hesitated in alerting authorities, Högel could have been stopped earlier.
Authorities are pursuing criminal cases against former staff at the two medical facilities.
Högel is believed to be the most prolific serial killer in Germany’s postwar history.